This international conference will address the complex and contradictory
role played by the Catholic Church and its institutions - especially
the Roman Inquisition - in the process of secularization of culture and
society in early modern Italy.Topics covered will include the changing
definitions, and the disciplining, of 'superstions', trials for magic
and witchcraft, the control and repression of religious minorities, the
pretense of holiness, the policing of public opinion.